Autonomous vehicles are becoming more common. Everything from pizza delivery to taxi service can now be provided via autonomous vehicles. With this in mind, it would be advantageous to provide public-safety officers with an autonomous vehicle to aide in performing their job. However, simply having a vehicle follow an officer every time they leave their vehicle will be problematic. For example, if an officer enters a shopping mall, it is not necessary to have the officer's vehicle roam the parking lot “following” the officer as the officer patrols the mall. However, if the officer makes an arrest while on patrol, it may be advantageous to the officer if the vehicle moved to the closes exit. Therefore, a need exists for an autonomous vehicle that alleviates the above-mentioned issues.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required.